For the company I work for I handle deployment and release of our Web Sites & Services. I'm investigating the possibility of going on an ITIL course, but I'm currently finding it difficult to pick out what is best for me.

I've been looking at the ITIL V2 Release Management course, that outlines a lot of the concepts and tasks that I currently do at work, but since we have ITIL V3, it's very difficult to work out what course should I be applying for...

This is my first foray into the world of ITIL so I'm a bit... well... lost.

I've been suggested by a work colleague that ISO 9000/1 might be what I'm looking for but I think that's to do with Quality Assurance and not Release Management.

neither ISO9000 nor ISO20000 seem a good fit for your description as they are overall quality Management standards rather than narrowly related to your role.

what do you mean by "we have ITIL V3"? Do you mean you have the books?

ITIL is not technical. It is about service management. It is relevant to your role, but, would not your own management be the people to explain to you how it will help you?

You will not be able to take any more detailed course until you have passed the Foundation course and doing it should help you to understand what ITIL is and therefore what in it will be of value to you._________________"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

okay. Firstly I suggest you ignore the v2/v3 aspect. You will gain as much from a course in either in your current situation. Looking ahead it is logical to go with the latest both in books and courses, because ultimately you may want a specific current qualification, but at the moment if you got a good offer on the v2 books or courses then that would be fine. Just my opinion, but nothing fundamental has changed at the level you are looking. I have never done a v2 or a v3 course, but I consider myself fully qualified by virtue of my certificate from the "old days" and my experience and constant reading and involvement to keep up to date.

Now, there are two ways to get value from ITIL. One is to help you design an IT service quality management system; for that you need to start with an overview and then consider a strategy for your overall integrated system before developing the components with reference to ITIL. It does not sound as if you are in that position at the moment.

The second way is to dip into ITIL to find good practices around your work area; some will be fairly general, some will be specific to what you do and some will seem to need improvements in other areas to be effective. You can certainly do that right now and a training course is not necessary and may not be good value right now

At this stage, I would suggest that you do some research yourself before thinking about formal training.

- Obviously look at the official sites
- read through many threads here (not just in release management - there is always a lot put in to threads on Change and Service Desk for example)
-join Linkedin and dig into the various discussion groups there (plenty to be learned from some of the debates there)
- there is also good stuff on the itsmfi-forum although it is much less active than the other two
- get a hold of the ISO20000 standard (get your company to buy it - its not a lot) and read it to understand what underpins quality in IT service provision
- get your company to use a consultant (or me!) to offer an overview on the whole subject and what is worthwhile and why.

When you have done as much of this as you can you may or may not see value in formal training. I would suggest that the Foundation training has little value on its own if you are in an organization that hasn't much clue about ITIL - reading the books is worth vastly more at that stage. The more advanced courses ought, with good trainers - see Liz Gallacher on that - and a good mix of students, to provide useful practical insights that make them worthwhile._________________"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718